A small town take on the big, wide world

Plenty in Pongaroa

Route 52 between Weber and Pongaroa wound on and on. There was paddock after paddock, sheep, lots of sheep, flowering broom, the occasional farm house (rare but we did see one or two), very few other cars on the road (make that three), and no shops, no service stations, no cafes, no hotels, nothing.

Tummies were rumbling, mouths were salivating, and remarks were made about large, no forget that, huge appetites. As for me, I felt a little sick – not car sick – oh, no, the driving was too good for that. It was the sort of internal flip-flopping that occurs when you realise you might have mucked up – big time.

You see, although my inside info (Facebook conversation with our cousin who lives in Pongaroa) was that the Pongaroa Hotel would be open and that servings are generous, I hadn’t thought to book.

Perhaps I’ve been listening to too many stories about there being no room at the inn, after all it’s that time of the year, but I was worried. If a plan “B” was required it wouldn’t be as easy to execute, or as simple as driving on to the next country pub, like it is from Onga Onga to Tikokino. We had to do that back in August.

Pongaroa is about three hours drive from Napier, forty-five minutes from Pahiatua, and an hour and a half from Palmerston North. It’s a long, long way off our beaten track.

My companions grew quiet. “We know the hotel’s open,” I said, attempting a positive note. “At the very least we’ll be able to have a beer and a packet of chips.”

Not only could they seat us but that blackboard menu is a small sampling of the full menu.

General Ambience

The ambience was warm, welcoming, and friendly. The locals were keen to chat. And they were proud of their hotel. With good reason.

There’s a display on the back wall of Pongaroa historical highlights, including a piece of the original sarking with the carpenter’s signature.

The building was at first a BNZ bank and then a private residence. It was converted to a hotel in 1948. An old window from the bank is on display in the dining room.

Old Bank window

Our meals

“H”, our cousin, was right about the portion size. There are three fillets of very fresh fish beneath those farm eggs.

Meal for one?

There’s a down side to all this plenty: no-one had room for dessert. We still remember our Mangatera lesson and the car trip home, more than a year ago now, when rumbling stomachs were replaced by long and loud groaning.

We opted for Irish coffees instead. And I discovered that chocolate fish and whiskey is a delicious combination – who knew.

It hit the spot

We scored our meals. Shameful, perhaps, but there you are, we’re like that.

My companions, when challenged about the less than perfect score they each dealt out, said the following:

Companion A, eater of the huge fish meal, which he scoffed in its entirety: “There was just a tiny something missing”.

Me: “What exactly?”

Him: “I don’t know, but I’ll know when I find it.”

Score 9.5/10

Companion B, eater of the hot chicken salad which she described as delicious and which, I observed, she ate quickly and without offering a taste test to anyone, scored her meal 9/10.

Me: Why only 9/10?

Companion B, a little defensively, “Look! A ten has to be perfect.” Apparently, there’s only one place she’s ever given a ten and that’s a restaurant in Auckland. It specialises in Kiwi Fusion. I don’t actually know what that is but it sounds fancy.

Companion C, eater of the largest hamburger you have ever seen in your life, scored his meal a 9/10 as well. Why? He wanted salad. (Personally, I think that’s taking the health message of 5+ a day a tad too far.)

As for me, eater of the lady’s steak burger. It had a free range egg that was probably laid the same day I ate it, the yolk oozed through the meal, the steak was melt in my mouth tender, the burger bun was perfectly, lightly toasted. It was the best burger of my life, ever! Yessirree – it was a definite and well-deserved 10/10 from me.

A Bonus – actually three bonuses

Bonus number one: Did you know that Maurice Wilkins, one of the lead scientists in the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA was from Pongaroa. And he won the Nobel prize!

Sculpture in honour of Maurice Wilkins

Bonus number two: It was chance that lead to Pongaroa being so far off the beaten track. Back in the early days there were plans afoot for the Masterton to Napier railway to run through Pongaroa. The engineering difficulties getting across the main divide prevented that and the township remained a farming community.

Bonus number three (and the best bonus): A visit and a long chat with our cuzzie. She’s a laugh a minute. And she makes a brilliant cup of tea. She also drives the school bus, the ambulance, helps occasionally in the kitchen at the pub, loves all things Christmassy, and has inherited our grandmother’s talent for gardening. The climate in Pongaroa has its challenges. It’s known to be windy and it was yesterday. She reckons her pea straw has blown all the way to Hastings. Nonetheless her garden’s thriving.

How did we rate our likely return?

Keen as (You bet!)

Good idea

Maybe

Could be talked in to it

Not if I’m paying

You read it here first, folks. Pongaroa Hotel is our new favourite. Yes, it supplants the Duke, and let me tell you that’s saying something! This is a country hotel that has the recipe right. At a time when ten percent of country hotels close each year, the Pongaroa is where the locals come for a coffee, for a meal, to chat, and maybe to enjoy a drink.

During our drive home we were busy planning our return. In fact we’ve planned a bit of a pub crawl. It’ll take several days. From Porangahau, to Wimbledon, to Pongaroa. And I’ve discovered that when it comes to Pongaroa we haven’t scratched the surface. There’s a menu we all want to work our way through, a beach at Akitio, waterfalls at Mangatiti and Waihi, and a four day walk across farmland.

Our problem is fitting everything in and I’m not talking only about the food.

Hi pommepal,
Pahiatua isn’t very far from Pongaroa. There’s a direct route to Pahiatua from Pongaroa. I haven’t driven it, myself – yet. (I hear it’s narrow and twisty – but that’s a townie’s take on it.) We’ve often gone over the Pahiatua track to Palmerston North when the Manawatu Gorge is closed due to slips.

I’ll never forget going up the track from Palmerston North for a job interview on a pig farm in 1972. It was winter and a thick pea soup fog obliterated all around us. I crawled along in an old Austin A30 with my head out of the window watching the grass along the edge so I wouldn’t go over and down the side. Incidentally I got the job and found out later no one else applied for it….

sounds like a great hotel – and you gave your burger a ten – yeah! I loved hearing all the food scores and the pic of the coffee – well mmm – and Irish coffee is my favorite winter treat. It is hard to find a good one around RVA (not sure why this is because coffee – Jameson’s and some fresh whipped cream- but it is hard to find a well made one -and yours looks spot on) –
anyhow, thanks for the bonuses too 🙂 and did not know about Maurice Wilkins…
lastly, there was a small hotel I wanted to go to in Canada – it was called -well – it was called “The Priorhouse Inn” and around ten years ago I tried to buy the domain for prior house but they had it – and well, they have gone out of business so I can’t visit there anymore. And they still keep the domain

I’m starting to feel like a soft Aucklander who never ventures anywhere reading your blog! But the road trip idea is gaining traction and even the boy-child sounded interested — as long as I let him do some of the driving! Learner’s licence last Monday, daily driving sessions since — but I’m not quite sure I’m ready for him on the open road 🙂

🙂 yeah, we were thinking that out-of-Auckland road would be great expereience for him. I seem to remember that the streets in Hokitika are particularly wide – great for a kid who’s still figuring out where the left of the car is in relation to the kerb!

Awesome and I can’t wait … provided the Lord allows! I’ve yet to find anyplace here in the US that I would love to go to … except the Blarney Stone for an Awesome burger er .. burgers! Right here in Syracuse NY.

Wow those portions of food are huge, Jill. In fact they almost look as big as the food portion sizes we had in New York when there last week. Shame you did not manage dessert as I would have loved to have known what they were like and if they were deconstructed (as some were in New York).

A great piece of writing Jill and I enjoyed the journey with you and your friends. I’d have gone with the steak burger with you, with salad…oh and chips as well 🙂

Hi Hugh, I have to admit I haven’t really been hungry since Sunday (Tuesday now!) And, although I can’t be 100% sure, I doubt that the desserts would be deconstructed, and I’m sure that’s a good thing. I had bagels and lox for breakfast in New York once – they were as huge as that burger.

That sounds wonderful. I shouldn’t be reading this so early in the morning. I am now very hungry and when I break down and buy that muffin, I’m going to be thinking “I could be having a giant plate of fish and eggs or a burger with egg or an Irish Coffee, or…” What a great road trip. Thanks for sharing.